Bangalore, India

I'm in Innnnndiaaaaaa (with wiggly finger gesture for Steven Homestead.)





I arrived very late at night, so I just went straight to bed. But since then I have been on the go. I got up on day 1 and headed out for a tour of Bangalore. First I visited the Iskon Temple which is a large Krishna Temple. I had to take my shoes off and also check my camera, so I don't have any pictures of inside. It was actually really fun to walk around barefoot. I got the VIP pass of sorts, so I got to go right in front to see the gods and talk to the priest who was there worshipping the god. He told me a little about each of the gods I saw. It was all very interesting. I even got a little ceramic bowl of a sweet Indian dessert from one of the preists. They have all sorts of interesting rituals. They asked me to put my hands on a little bed of flowers and then say my name. Then the priest said a little prayer for me and then he threw the flowers at the gods' feet. Then he gave me some flower petals to take home with me. We sat cross legged on the floor for a little bit so my tour guide could worship the idol. I just looked around at the interesting crowd of people there. The gods are extremely elaborate. Decorated with gold and silver and immaculate outfits. It is certainly very beautiful inside the temple. They even gave me a free book about how to obtain spirituality. Looks like a real page turner. On our way out they also gave us a little little bowl made of dried leaves and they scooped curd rice into it for us to have a little snack. It was my first Indian food for the whole trip and I was looking around for a spoon when I saw everyone else just eating it with their fingers. So I followed their lead, dropped rice all over my shirt, and had my frist Indian snack. It was interesting to say the least. After the temple we headed to the Bangalore Palace. It was absolutely beautiful! It was designed after Windsor Palace in England and it definitely looked British and really out of place for India but it was really pretty. There was even a film crew there filming an Indian movie. And I guess a big star was in it, but I don't really know any Indian actors so I wouldn't know.

After the Palace we stopped by their big Government building that is kind of comparable to the White House. And across the street saw a big red building that is another important building but I can't remember why... :-) Then we went for lunch! It was pretty much the coolest lunch ever. They put this huge banana leaf on the table in front of me and then different people just came around and plopped different little piles of apparently edible material on the leaf. Then a guy came around with little round tortilla-like bread and I was supposed to eat with my fingers! I had to tear off a little piece of the bread and then pinch some food between it and eat it that way. It was very interesting and very delicious!!! I really enjoyed it. And it's so environmentally friendly! When we were done they just folded up the leaf and threw it away and we washed our hands and cleanup was over! Gosh, those Indians are so GREEN!

After lunch we went to the coolest science museum ever. It was really interactive and I had a lot of fun making the tour guide take ridiculous pictures of me. Admission was 50 cents. India was starting to become my new favorite.

We also went to these really beautiful gardens at the end of the tour and it was fun to see all the Indian families relaxing and spending time together. I had some neat conversations with the tour guide about family structure, gender roles, arranged marriages, and so on. It was all in all, a wonderful first day in India!!